Unless you are a competitive gamer, you can get a laptop computer that can do anything and everything you ask of it without blowing your budget to smithereens. Our editors look at expert opinions and user feedback to find the best budget and mainstream laptops that deliver the most bang for the buck. And if you are a gamers or want a super powerful laptop, we have suggestions for you as well.

Best laptop

Windows devotees might disagree, but the 13-inch Apple MacBook Air is the best mainstream laptop you can buy right now. Performance, build quality and reliability put it at the top of the pack, reviews tell us. The design has stayed the same, which means it's now just a beautiful classic rather than breathtakingly cutting edge. What hasn't stayed the same is pricing, which has been reduced. Battery life will last 12 hours or longer without a trip to the charger. And if you absolutely need to run Windows, it can do that, too.
See our full review

Premium ultraportable laptop

Those who don't think that that Apple MacBook Air is the best ultraportable on the planet give that honor instead to the 13-inch Apple MacBook Pro with Retina display. It's pricier than the Air, but you get more powerful hardware, including a faster-still Core i5 processor and Iris integrated graphics that are good enough to play most modern games -- albeit at reasonable quality settings. You also get Apple's Retina display. It's still terrific looking, even if it's been surpassed a little in terms of total pixels by some Windows competitors.

Premium desktop replacement laptop

Power users that value performance over portability will likely find happiness in the form of the 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display. Even the base version has enough power -- including a Core i7 processor and Iris Pro graphics -- to handle just about anything most users would ever throw at it. Actual rocket scientists and graphics designers can take things one step further by upgrading to a version with a faster processor and dual graphics, and a $2,500 price tag. This higher end 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display is also a capable gamer, though serious gamers can find better performing Windows rigs, such as the Asus Republic of Gamers G751JY-DH71 (Est. $2,300 and up), at the same price, or less.

Best Windows laptop

The latest version of the Dell XPS 13 earns kudos as a lightweight ultraportable laptop that's a heavyweight when it comes to performance and durability. With its Core i5 processor, it's every bit the equal of the MacBook Air -- meaning it's perfect for most tasks short of competitive gaming. It's also the equal of the Air when it comes build quality and ergonomics, including a first rate full-HD touch screen -- nearly essential for the best experience with Windows 8.1.
See our full review

Best cheap laptop

For good, everyday performance in a super-cheap Windows laptop, it's hard to find fault with the Dell Inspiron i3147, a version of the Dell Inspiron 11 3000 sold at retailers such as Amazon.com. The processor is powerful enough for basic computing -- web surfing, document creation, video watching -- the sorts of things most people use a computer for on a daily basis. The touch screen at this price point is a welcome feature, especially since it makes life with Windows 8.1 a much more productive experience. The screen even flips around to convert this laptop into a capable, albeit heavy, Windows 8 slate.
See our full review

Cheap Windows laptop

If you need more power than the Dell Inspiron i3147 can provide, then the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 2- 59418262 is worth considering. This version of the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 2 (15 inch) is well-equipped for its price tag, including a 4th generation Intel Core i5 processor, 6 GB of memory, and a hybrid 500 GB hard drive with an 8 GB solid state cache. Like the Dell, it has a trick hinge, but it's not as versatile as it can't swing all the way around for use as a tablet. However, you can swing the keyboard enough for it to act as a stand for touch computing or video watching on the full HD touchscreen display. The laptop is a bit large and heavy compared to an ultraportable, but that allows room for things like a DVD burner and an Ethernet connection.

Best Chromebook

The ultra-cheap Acer C720 gets that way by ditching Windows. Instead, you do almost everything in the cloud via Google Chrome on this Wi-Fi only laptop. Online apps are your programs, and you get 100 GB of free Google Drive storage for two years. Chrome now allows for some offline use, though that's far from a polished experience. The Haswell-based processor allows for good performance despite the C720's rock-bottom price.
See our full review

Best gaming laptop

When it comes to gaming, blazing fast, high-powered graphics are key, and the Asus Republic of Gamers G751JY-DH71 delivers, and then some, on that score. It's among the first to use NVIDIA's bleeding-edge graphics solution, the Maxwell-based GeForce GTX 980M. Reviewers are floored, saying that so-equipped, the G751JY-DH71 literally blows away any previous mobile graphics -- and it's not a close call. Even better, the NVIDIA graphics are backed by a system that's solid in all other respects, save for the lack of a touch screen. The icing on the cake is a price that seems almost too good to be true, at least when compared to what high-performance gaming rigs can often command.

See a side-by-side comparison of key features, product specs, and prices.

Finding the right laptop

The best laptop is the one that meets your computing needs. If, like most people, you use a computer primarily for light duty tasks -- reading and writing email, posting on Facebook, streaming movies and music, playing casual games, writing a document in Microsoft Word, etc. -- a mainstream laptop costing $900 or less will almost certainly be just fine. At the higher end of that range, you can find surprisingly powerful laptops, including, for the first time, some configurations of the Apple MacBook Air (Est. $900 and up). We also found some cheap laptops priced at $400 and below with enough power for everyday use, including some that sport a touchscreen display for better compatibility with Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 (more below on that).

This report also covers more powerful computers that are designed for serious work or serious play. Typical business users, especially those who are frequent travelers, might want to look first at ultraportable notebooks that weigh less than 4 pounds or so and typically have very good battery life. Those who spend their days crunching numbers or working with graphics will likely want something that's a little more powerful, with a faster processor and better graphics capabilities. High-end gamers will want more power still to fire their way through intense 3D games with the smoothest action and the highest possible detail.

Laptop computers come in all sorts of shapes and sizes -- and capabilities.

Traditional laptops are usually fairly thick at 1 inch and up and heavy at 5 pounds or more. These types of computers run the gamut from the super cheap, where design and aesthetics take a decided back seat to the bottom line, to super powerful desktop replacements that can handle even heavy-duty tasks such as 3D gaming with ease. Whether you need a laptop with maximum power or one with a rock-bottom price, the odds are good that you can find a traditional laptop that will fill the bill.

Ultraportable laptopsare super thin and super light. They rely on swift processors and nimble solid-state drives (SSDs) to feel quick on their feet while web surfing, streaming video, or performing productivity tasks like composing documents or preparing PowerPoint presentations. Examples include Windows Ultrabooks and the Apple MacBook Air. Ultraportable laptops are especially favored by those who need an everyday workhorse that doesn't feel like a ton of bricks to lug around. Ultraportables with the latest processors run fast and cool, with enough battery power to last for a whole day of work.

Chromebooksrun Google Chrome instead of Windows or Mac operating systems. For basic tasks such as web browsing and streaming video, a cheap Chromebook could be all you need. However, they are not the best choice for more intensive use, or if you need to run specific applications like Microsoft Office. They also work best if you have dependable, steady access to the Internet. These are among the least expensive laptops you can buy, and are typically as thin and light as an Ultrabook, but be sure you understand the trade-offs before deciding on one.

Convertible laptop computerslook like traditional laptops, but have a keyboard that either flips over or detaches when you want to use your laptop as a slate tablet. Most run the full version of Windows 8 (or 8.1), rather than the tablet-specific operating systems used by Android or Apple tablets, or the more limited Windows RT operating system used in the Microsoft Windows Surface 2 slate tablet. They also tend to rate more highly for use as a laptop than as a tablet. If you are primarily interested in a slate tablet, such as the Apple iPad Air 2 or the Google Nexus 9, those and many more are covered in our report on tablets.

When it comes to laptops, the only constant is change

For most product categories -- including most technology products -- life cycles are measured in years. For laptops, especially Windows laptops, they are sometimes measured in months or even weeks as makers are constantly tweaking configurations to take advantage of even small changes in available technologies and components, either to keep a competitive edge or merely to hit a price point.

Most of these tweaks are small -- showing up as incremental changes in benchmark tests (and not always for the better) but rarely having very much of an impact on real-world performance. Other changes can be more significant; for example, a step up to a new generation microprocessor can render earlier comments obsolete. Complicating matters, laptops bearing the same -- or very similar -- model names can come in a host of sometimes substantially different versions ranging from preconfigured models sold only through a specific retailer (Best Buy's Blue Label program is one example of that) to user-customized configurations sold directly by the manufacturer.

The bottom line is that the recommendations in this report should be used primarily as a starting point. The specific configurations available when you are ready to purchase may vary. However, we provide the hardware details -- processor, graphics, memory and storage -- for each laptop we recommend. Match those up to the closest available models -- or custom configure your laptop yourself -- and performance should be as good or better as the reviewed configuration. Other aspects of the laptop -- ergonomics, aesthetics, build quality, support, etc. -- should be consistent regardless of how much a manufacturer has overhauled the innards.

Windows 8

Let's get this out of the way from the start: Windows 8 is a mess. The problem is that in trying to create a "unified" operating system designed to work on tablets and laptops, Windows 8 wound up being one that didn't work all that well on either. Windows 8.1 introduced some fixes and workarounds that helped a little, but not enough in the eyes of many. "Touch-loving tablet users are still saddled with a touch-hostile Windows desktop, while point-and-clickers who live and breathe the Windows desktop still can't make Metro go away," says Woody Leonhard at InfoWorld.

Microsoft is in such a hurry to put Windows 8 in the rear-view mirror that it is skipping Windows 9 and jumping to Windows 10, which is expected to be released in mid-2015, though that date remains speculative and could slip farther down the road. A few makers, such as Lenovo, HP and Dell, are still offering a handful of laptops that ship with Windows 7 either standard or as an option, and a few rate well enough to earn a spot in this report. However, if you think Windows 8/8.1 would be a good fit for you, we recommend getting a laptop equipped with a touch screen for the best user experience. While it is possible to use Windows 8 on a non-touch laptop, feedback tells us that the process is not intuitive and not a whole lot of fun.

How we picked the best laptops

To find the best laptops we scour feedback from expert reviewers, such as PCMag.com and CNET, and user feedback at sites such as BestBuy.com and Amazon.com. We consider not only performance but also factors such as ergonomics, design and value, as well as which laptop makers do the best job of standing by you if trouble crops up. We name the best laptop overall, along with the top choices among cheap laptops and gaming rigs. While these laptops rise to the top, there are a bevy of laptops that don't fall very much behind, and some of those are able enough performers to make them worthy of serious consideration as well.

Elsewhere in this Report:

Best Laptops: These are the laptops that deliver the best combination of performance, ergonomics and value. Editors name top choices, including Windows and Apple products.

Best Cheap Laptops: Need a basic laptops for light-duty tasks or just for surfing the Internet? These rock-bottom-priced Windows laptops provide real value. Chromebooks are discussed, too.

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